Recovering Shadows
by WigglyTeeth
Summary: Deanna Bryant upon just moving into her new apartment, has a brief run in with a monstrous being named Venom. She tries to get the memory to leave her mind, but finds that the creature keeps popping up. Soon it occurs that she may be closer to this beast than she thinks.
1. Settling in

-Authors note: This will mix different versions of Eddie and Venom from the comics and movie/shows as one character-

A heavy sigh broke the silence of a box filled apartment. Deanna leaned against her windowsill that overlooked a busy street, seeing the clutter that made up the city reminded her of fond childhood memories that made a grin tug at her lips. The warm haze of the late evening sun setting created a blissful atmosphere for her. Though the work of moving was taxing, and the knowledge that she had to wake up at five in the morning for her internship was enough to make her want to pass out. The flight delay didn't help her grogginess either, her schedule had become overly cramped from it and it just reassured her distaste of airlines. Her eyes traveled around the stuffy apartment, over the shabby couch and hastily bought air mattress, to a scuffed up fridge.

She realized she ought to eat something, but she knew that the only things in her fridge were a few sandwiches, milk, and multiple peach products. This included a large number of jars of her father's fair winning peach jam. Not to mention her peach memorabilia that was scattered everywhere, a peach cookie jar sat on her stove, looking just peachy as her peach shaped clock overlooked it. Ever since she planted a peach tree back in Georgia, her parents decided they must get her everything peach related. Which was nice at the time of being fourteen, but now that she was in her twenties, it just seemed silly. She couldn't stand the idea of getting rid of them though, her parents were only trying to help make her move to the city less stressful, it was their way of staying with her and she was more than willing to amuse them.

Her body swayed as she decided instead to saunter over to the couch to lie down, not yet wanting to waste the rest of the day by sleeping, just a little rest to help get her mind together. New York reminded her so much of San Francisco, or maybe she just thought it did. She hadn't been in San Francisco since she was a child and the cities were still vastly different. She knew nothing about the area that she now lived in, other than that it was close to her job and also very close to, as the movers called it "a shitty hole to be in." Her fingers ran through her short dark hair, she didn't mind the risk, the joy that came with the opportunity of making a new life here far outweighed any fears she had. There was also a firm belief in her that she could take care of any problem that arose; she wasn't raised to be stepped on. A yawn escaped her and she could feel her body relaxing into the old couch, with a jolt she sat up, shaking off her feeling of weariness and groaning. She mumbled something about unpacking and got back to work at making her kingdom of boxes look more like an apartment.

The next morning was a daze; she wasn't used to being on such a tight schedule and not knowing the area meant she had to get up extra earlier to avoid wasting time if she became lost. Hours passed of mostly talking and getting to know her employers. Excitement ran through her at the opportunity to become an actual engineer, no longer having to tinker and fix farm equipment for money, but she was having a hard time paying full attention in her state of mind. She realized that within the next month she would need to acquire another job in order to maintain her rent. Not knowing anyone in the area didn't help at all, there was no grapevine to work from, and all knowledge had to be dug for.

Clouds crowded the skies as she made her way out of the large building and towards her home, threatening to pour rain down. It wasn't very late in the day, but the sky was quickly darkened and a chill hit her from the upcoming rain. She adjusted the collar to her turtleneck sweater, pulling it up to her chin for warmth. The thought to check the weather earlier didn't cross her mind in the slightest; she was in too much of a hurry. She judged that it was over a thirty minute walk to her work if she didn't stop somewhere. A groan echoed in her throat as the first droplets of water hit her dark skin. She paused and started to judge the area she was in, trying to think of shortcuts back to her apartment. Her eyes strained as she looked around, some people hurried by to cabs or across the street, others just passed her by as wind clawed at her. Deanna looked down the alley next to her, judging that it probably led to the road she needed to go. The area seemed oddly sketchy, but as the rain started to pour down and drench her clothes, her mind made a quick decision and she started to make her way quickly into the alley. It winded around multiple buildings, creating an intricate path, but she was sure she knew where she was going.

Thunder started to boom in the distance and she kept her head down to avoid getting water in her eyes. Shudders ran down her spine from the cold and one wrong step on a piece of trash forced her to slip to the ground, landing on her rear. She paused with a frown before getting up and brushing off the dirt. Suddenly the sound of running could be heard, or maybe she was just now noticing it. The sound of a skirmish happening was loud in her ears. She cautiously approached an intersection of the alley, where the corners of four buildings met. Another boom of thunder and a man suddenly pushed her, grabbing her arm and shoving her passed him as he fled. She stumbled forward, the shock put her in a tizzy, her eyes went to follow the man that was far behind her now, but she ended up falling into a wall.

Deanna winced, clenching her teeth and then realizing that there was no way there could have been a wall there. Her eyes grew wide and darted to the front to see what she had fallen towards. A dark gigantic figure grabbed her arms and pulled her up to greet its gnarled toothy face in a sharp movement. She lost her breath for a moment as she met the thing's white 'eyes.' Its head was large and along with its teeth, it held a sharp grotesque tongue. It gurgled out a growl that started to turn into a frightening roar, and then it stopped. Its strange eyes stared into hers. The monstrous thing looked into her frightened eyes. Something about her eyes and face seemed to click in the shadowy beast's mind. The meaty creature had its large clawed hands tightly wrapped around her arms, causing her to gasp in discomfort. She was too shocked to make proper words, still trying to understand what was happening. The creature's face twitched and the sickening smile it had a minute ago curled down into a confused frown. She yelled and her voice cracked "LET GO" Soon its grip loosened and Deanna instinctively started to wiggle out of its hands, about to kick it before the monster just simply stopped holding onto her, letting her hop back to the ground. It made a gurgling noise, it seemed almost pained, the word "sorry" whispered out between its teeth with a harsh tone. For something so large and menacing, it seemed to shrink slightly, as if it were embarrassed. She stumbled back and gripped for the nearest wall, her legs twitched and adrenaline started to pump, telling her to run. The creature started to back away, and Deanna paused to stare at it, "what's it doing?" She thought to herself as it made an eerie and deep whining noise at her. Now she didn't know if running was a good idea, would it set the thing off and have it spring towards her? She didn't understand the situation and she slowly took a step back.

Gun shots rung in her ear with sudden sharpness, causing her to trip and barely regain her balance. She kneeled down and held her ears, the ringing in her head stopped when she looked up and realized the gigantic monster of a man was now over her. Its position was shocking at first as it crouched over her kneeling body. Then she realized it was being protective, it growled as pieces of flying lead hit its back, seeming to do no damage to the beast. It roared loud enough to vibrate her insides and then it turned around and leapt at the shooter with ease. This was enough for Deanna, without another minute, she sprinted up and ran. She was done dealing with this horror show. Her questions were put on hold as she flew down the alley and out of it, trying to get to her apartment as quickly as possible.

The sounds of what was happening behind her slowly faded away and in what seemed like a split second, she reached her apartment complex's door. She paused to open it, breathing heavily as she slinked inside the door and made her way upstairs at a much slower pace. The whole run home seemed to have almost never happened; her mind was in overdrive, giving her little to no time to properly digest anything going on around her.

Her hands shook when she searched for her keys to open the door, she felt clumsy and angry with how she handled the situation. Running could have ended badly, but there was no way she could have taken on that _thing_ without a weapon, and looking back, she almost felt thankful for it. It seemed to have been protecting her, but she wasn't sure, the mind can play tricks on people. Her whole body shook and she lazily walked over to her bed and flopped down on it. Her breathing calmed and she started to thank the heavens that she made her way home without getting shot. She truly realized how little she knew about the area, the only thing she heard of was of a person named 'Spiderman' that seemed to be a superhero of sorts in New York, but that was no hero she saw. Deanna clutched at a pillow and gurgled out the word "fuck" into it. The whole event was getting to her, but she refused to have it cause a meltdown. She made muffled yell into the pillow and let it go, she just had to deal with it and move on.

The thought of calling the cops finally crossed her mind, but before she even looked at her phone, she heard sirens nearing the area. Someone else must have already called in the gunshots. Her mind started to waver as her pillow seemed to feel softer. She sighed and nuzzled her face into it as sleep started to fill her head. Images of the monstrous being with wicked teeth and a lashing tongue pervaded her dreams the rest of the night.


	2. Pitiful Creatures

After a few days of lamely wandering from home to work and back, Deanna found that simply making a run to a local coffee shop brightened her mornings and evenings. The shock of the tussle had since faded and she decided to not mention it to her parents when they called the day after the event, having her mother and father worry about her broke her heart and she couldn't bear to make it worse for them. Or for them to send more peach shaped cutlery. She simply lied and told them everything went great, that there were no problems after the plane landed and that she loved the area she was living in. Large white lies, but they kept her mother from sobbing about her baby growing up, so she didn't mind.

She sipped at her latte and smiled when she could taste a tiny bit of caramel touch her tongue, little things easily made her smile, growing up pinching pennies tends to help with that. Sitting next to the window she could see busy people hurry by, it was an enjoyable site, and it reminded her that for this moment she could rest. At some point she thought she saw an old friend in one of the passing crowds, but realized it was a silly thought, the city was too large to meet old friends at random, especially when she had so few. She did miss him though and wondered how he was. Shaking away the nostalgia, her mind swapped to ponder over the creeping feeling she of someone watching over her walks from place to place. Sometimes she even thought she could see large white glowing eyes peering at her from alleyways, but they always vanished before she had a chance to take a good look. Her excuse was that it was some kind of post traumatic stress, just her being jumpy and her imagination getting to her.

The sky was developing a red tone through the city mist as the sun started to set, making Deanna realize that it would be dark by the time she reached home. Deanna took a last sip of her coffee and pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder; she waved at her server, and then made her leave. After the little incident a week earlier, she had learned to take it easy and not run into alleys for shortcuts. In fact, she started to avoid them the best she could. She tried to keep up a quick pace and every once and awhile started to play with her sleeves to give her hands something to do. The chill in the air was something she needed to get used to again, she felt such a strange culture shock being in the city, but she couldn't say she didn't enjoy the prospect of something so new.

Quickly the sky became a murky abyss as Deanna neared her apartment; blinking streetlights lit her path as she gazed at the three story building coming into sight. It tended to look better at night, when you couldn't see all the broken window frames and shoddy painted patchwork. She paused at a sound coming from the side of the complex, near where garbage was thrown out. She blinked a few times at the sound, thinking it was someone throwing something away, until it got louder. It sounded like someone banging against metal as hard as they could. At this rate it would wake her neighbors, or the entire street and she wasn't about to deal with this if it kept going on. Instead of fear, she started to get angry and ready to yell at whoever was making that horrid noise. A walk around the corner of the complex ceased any yelling she would have created at the time.

There, low to the ground was that horrible creature she had met earlier that week. She could see it fully now, but it was crouching. Its back and shoulder muscles were the most easily seen from Deanna's perspective along with its head, sinews covered each tightly crafted form. Light dripped off the beast like water, giving it a shine resembling murky oil. She could now notice the white design the seemed almost like a tattoo over it's nearly pitch black form. Appearing to be a strange spider stretched and elongated over its chest and back. This truly confused Deanna as she thought about the pictures of Spiderman her mother brought up, but this wasn't him, there was no way it could be.

Her legs tensed, she felt a need to move quickly, but the figure was relaxed in its crouched position. It didn't show a sign that it was going to attack her. When it moved to lean on its hand, Deanna jumped and took a step back. This caused the creature to shudder and move back a step as well, quickly reassuming its position. Deanna's eyes glanced around to try to figure out where the banging noise came from, not fully taking her gaze of the creature. Noticeable dents had been made in the large garbage can a few feet away and she guessed it was caused by this _thing._

Without fully thinking her voice rose powerfully as she her eyes glared at the being "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT. Have you been following me?!" Her voice almost hissed and the dark creature moved back another foot, seemingly trying to show that it didn't have malicious intent. It shifted and rose up to stand with a slight slouch, Deanna then realized that it was at least a foot taller than her, maybe even two feet taller. No normal man could be so gigantic and so exaggeratedly muscled. She kept her stern look even when her heart started to beat hard enough to shake her body, spitting out words "Can you speak?" The thing nodded slowly and its voice had an echoing tone of something demented and demonic "We are Venom." Its jagged teeth flashed and Deanna felt a pit twist in her stomach, but for some reason her fear seemed to subside. She tilted her head at it, curious but still cautious, she also had noticed that it was making quite an effort to not intimidate her. Or at least was trying.

She repeated louder "What do you want?" The creature shook at the words and seemed to fidget. She noticed that the flesh of 'Venom' seemed to move on its own at times, specifically as it fidgeted in place, small bumps of moving tissue formed as if it's body were made of a oily gel, this was even more accentuated by the dim light that bounced off it's form. Her eyes narrowed as it stayed silent and a growling whisper came from its throat "Friend."

There was a pause between the two, an aura of uneasiness came filtering in, but not a feeling of fright. An exhale of air came from her mouth as she said "Ok" and clapped her hands together "I'm going to leave now. Please just leave me alone, Venom. I don't want to be a part of what happened last time. I wasn't trying to get between you and those other people. I won't cause problems for you." She started to take steps backwards away from it and then it made the strangest whimpering noise she had ever heard, like a neutered growl of a powerful unearthly beast. It moved back to a crouching position and Deanna made a shooing motion at it like you would a dog. Looking at it making that awful noise and crouching so low made her almost pity the thing, but she remembered the horrible roar it made at her and the strength it showed, then kept walking with a faster step.

She escaped back to her apartment and made her way up to the second floor towards her room, glancing down every so often to make sure that 'Venom' person wasn't following her. A quick look that revealed nothing but air at her heals caused a relieved feeling to wash over her. Once in her room she made her way over to her window, looked out into the street and then closing the blinds when she pleasantly saw that there was no looming figure waiting on the sidewalk for her.

It amazed her that she felt far less disturbed and agitated when meeting this fiend again. Maybe it was because it spoke, or maybe it was how docile it acted towards her that caused her panic to quickly melt. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt calm about this creature following her; something about it just didn't make her as uneasy as she should feel. This didn't at all change the fact that she was going to stay away from it; she still didn't trust the thing, even if it did create some sort of feeling of comfort. She didn't know what it was or why it was really lurking around. This also brought up the question as to why it was fighting those men when she met it the first time. All questions led to distrust, but for some reason, she wasn't losing sleep over it.

After changing into loose fitting nightwear and scarfing down a sandwich and a glass of milk, she felt eerily calm with the situation. She felt secure in her apartment and not at all threatened. Even if it was false security, she clung to it; she hated being afraid more than anything. She liked to take things head on and be done with them. Fear ruins people as far as she was concerned.

She leaned on her speckled countertop, taking a last sip of milk as she felt something tickle her arm. A tiny spider, no bigger than half an inch, had crawled up onto her arm near her hand. It's yellowish color and large fangs indicated it to be a Yellow Sac Spider. She smiled at the small invertebrate as it paused on her arm, plausibly confused by her body heat or where it was going. It rubbed its front legs together and started to clean it's self. "Pretty girl." Deanna cooed at it, she had a strange affection for spiders of all kinds and she enjoyed looking up different species to learn about. Her parents never minded it and always called her up to take any spiders out that wandered inside the house. However neighbors and children tended to think it was extremely odd to enjoy handling creepy crawlies.

The Yellow Sac Spider was very common in New York, venomous but not at all deadly, its bites tended to be confused for Brown Recluse bites. It looked up at her and began to crawl; Deanna created platforms with her hands for the little being to crawl upon as she moved to her window. She quickly opened the window with one hand as the curious little arachnid paused and twitched it's mandibles in the air. "Come on little baby, go somewhere safer." Deanna gently pushed the miniscule creature off her hand; it hesitated at first before it hoped off onto her windowsill and made its way outside. A few moments passed of her watching the creature as she closed her window again and locked it with a pleased smile.

Soon she vacated back to her bed with a book, taking in a few chapters of required reading for her job that outlined the mechanics of the machines she would be working on for her internship. It was entertaining to her, but eventually sleep overcame her as her eyes fluttered and she rubbed at them. Reading caused her to lose track of time and it was already getting late, she could feel the blood vessels in her eyes popping as she set the book down. She yawned and desperately hoped that her meeting with Venom wouldn't come back to bite her. She didn't want to be a statistic when she was just starting off her new life, a life that could mean something so good for her and her family. Her eyes lazily glanced at the open space on one of her cabinets and she wondered if it would be a good investment to get a TV.

Within a few minutes her eyes closed and she drifted off, soon a dream of an old friend started up. She was unsure as to what caused her random spouts of nostalgia, but she did enjoy the mix of memories and fantasies. She really did miss him.


	3. Reunion

The alarm rang loudly and echoed in Deanna's skull as a dream quickly faded and was replaced by a headache. It was hard getting used to living somewhere so new and getting up so early, her brainpan wasn't used to all the excitement. Waking up with headaches was becoming the norm. A gurgling groan came from within her chest as Deanna quickly shut off the buzzing alarm and sat up to start her day. She rubbed her forehead and fluffed up the front of her hair as her eyes looked around the dark room.

With a stretch and a yawn she started her day, turning on the lights as she went around the apartment. Her wardrobe of the day consisted of a sweater, jeans and a dense jacket. Her frame was thick and heavily curved, her parent's had a tendency to use larger than normal portions when cooking, but that helped fuel all the heavy lifting Deanna and her family had to do on a daily basis. Keeping up the family's farm wasn't easy work, but it kept things afloat. A side effect of this routine being she could easily bench press 180, which helped with work and keeping her younger cousins in line.

Deanna gazed at the mirror in her bathroom, trying to force herself to wake up by gingerly patting her face. Her eyes are a rich brown color, just light enough to be differentiated from her pupils. She added small touches of makeup around her eyes to try to appear more awake than she actually was before finding her shoulder bag and walking out. The door closed quietly and Deanna made her way down the creaking stairway. She paused for a moment, remembering the night before and thinking that Venom could still be lurking around. Her fingers touched the knife in her jean pocket and then moved back to her bag strap as she opened the door.

Only after a few steps and turning down the first corner, Deanna bumped into someone. A small urked noise murmured out of her while the person apologized quickly. A small gasp came from the man in front of her that she whispered 'sorry' to. Deanna glanced up and her heart struck a sharp cord as a bulky blonde man stood in front of her and smiled "Deanna" A smile crept onto Deanna's face quickly as she looked over the man "E-Eddie! It's so good to see you." There was a hesitation between them and then Eddie's hands twitched as his arms made a quick movement to hug her, Deanna made no arguments and wrapped her arms around her old friend. She pulled away and chuckled "Jesus, Brock, you got big." His smile became a wide smirk, "Yeah, really got into working out. It's good stress relief." He rubbed the back of his neck and turned in the direction she was walking, "Are you going this way? I'm just taking a walk, so I'm in no hurry." Deanna nodded "I have a job to go to, but we could stop and get some coffee, I've got some extra time we can use to catch up." Brock nodded quickly as he moved to her side "Sure sounds great." Both of their voices had a light jubilant tone, little chuckles kept coming up in words.

Brock was keeping his façade well intact, keeping up the belief that this was a random circumstance of them meeting after so long. Together their steps were slow and odd, Brock was nearly a foot taller than Deanna, or it seemed like that to her when having to look up at the 6'5 man.

"So Eddie, how have you been? Are you still working as a journalist?"

Eddie hesitated for a moment "It's, uh, been good. Still workin as usual. I'm thinkin they're gunna promote me soon too."

Deanna could hear his normal strains Eddie had when lying, it hadn't changed from when they were kids, but she figured he had his reasons and ignored it, "That's really good, wow it's been so long. I'm really just amazed" She refrained from telling him how much she missed seeing him, unsure if things had changed.

"Yeah, you moved away when we were thirteen right? Damn, can't say I didn't miss you. Things got hard after you left." His blue eyes twitched "But how you been? You said about a job? Long way from uh…it was Georgia right? You moved to Georgia."

Deanna nodded "Yeah over ten years I've been out of a city, I'm not used to it anymore. Other than the culture shock, I'm doing well. The job I have is an internship for engineering. I got some money together and made my way here, I'm not living on much though."

"So how'd you find out about the internship anyway?"

"Family friend mentioned it after I fixed some of their farm equipment. There was an opportunity and so I took it."

"That's great though, you always said ya wanted to make stuff and help uh…" Eddie put an arm over her shoulder "Hey, do you still have that fascination with spiders? Remember how you used to scare the other kids with 'em?"

The memory was stale but easily remembered, though Deanna didn't like it. Using the spiders like that made her feel terrible in retrospect "Yep, I still like them lots. I have a pet tarantula back home named Lucy, couldn't bring her on the plane though. So make any headlines lately?"

Eddie paused and glared at the sidewalk, pulling his arm away from Deanna, "Nah, nothing really interesting to tell. News has been pretty dull lately." He was lying; she could see it in him so easily. The way he shrugged his shoulders and his eyes flicked when he spoke, Deanna could tell since he was a child, his lies were so obvious to her. People tended to fall for it, and even though Deanna had always been close to Eddie, she always knew he was a compulsive liar. Eddie's voice changed, becoming distorted just enough to be noticeable as he continued "Fuckin Spiderman gets into every damn thing." The sudden change made Deanna stare at him with concern, then he twitched and the mood was gone with his newly formed smile "But I'll figure out something."

Through a silent agreement they both moved on, not wanting to ruin the moment of meeting again. Even if for Eddie it really hadn't been that long. Their chit-chat consisted mostly of how amazed the meeting was and trying to catch up with each other, sprinklings of talking about the world was strewn in it, but neither of them were very up to date. Unfortunately Eddies lying ticks were prevalent the entire time which started to greatly worry Deanna. She remembered what he was like when she first met him, and eight year old kid lying his way out of problems and playing hero. By the time she had left, he was better; five years of being friends with each other helped him grow out of his compulsive habits. Now she was worried he'd reverted back completely as he boasted about things she knew didn't happen. Though it made her smile and forced a blush out of her when he spoke about how he was truly happy to see her again and enjoying the moment of the whole thing. Unfortunately the pompous banter would start up again quickly.

Once they reached the coffee shop and sat down, Deanna pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a long sigh while stopping Eddie's little ego fluffing "Eddie. Stop. You're doing that thing again, were you stretch and twist everything. You know I can tell. Just tell me how you're actually doing and stop sweetening the truth like you did when you were a twerp."

Eddie took a long sip of his coffee and then looked at it, playing with the cup in his large hands, scratching at the styrofoam with his thumb nail. There was a pause along with a nervous shift as he spoke without a coat of complete lies "Anna, things have been really… tense lately to say the least. I really don't want to get into it at all." His eyes twitched and flicked around "Things got really bad. I'm trying to make it better."

Deanna's shoulders slumped and her heart started to sink for him, her mind swims with things that could have happened with him while she was away. "Well alright then. Things are getting better though right?"

Brock's face lit up as his eyes locked on hers "Yes, I think so." Something felt painfully familiar about the stare, making Deanna's heart skip a beat and spawning a clumsy looking grin on her face "That's good." They both sipped at their coffee and Deanna offered Eddie some of hers, he stared at it "what is it?"

"A mocha latte with a bit of caramel in it. It's good, believe me. Well, it's better when it's cooled down." Eddie took a tiny sip of it while taking note of the drink in his mind. Another smile "You're right, that's some good shit. This place makes some nice stuff." He handed the cup back, all he had was plain black coffee, Eddie didn't have a whole lot of money on hand. There was never a point where he really needed it, Venom usually could get him anything they wanted, but right now he wanted to play house. He wanted to be himself again.

For a few minutes there was a perplexed silence between them, both were unsure of what to ask and afraid of a terrible answer. It seemed enough to just be able to sit with each other. Eddie went to lean on his hand, putting his elbow on the table and clearing his throat "So Deanna, uh, how were things in Georgia?"

"Not much to tell, things were hard for awhile. Lots of work and not much else. We scrounged money together for a computer right before I left. I'm realizing how cut off from things I really was. I mean, I didn't know how to contact you at all. When I sent a note to the address that was on the news article you sent, it was returned."  
"…Yeah that's, I think that was around the time I moved apartments."

"Anyway, you said you were just taking a walk. Do you live around here?"

His eyes flicked away for a moment "I'm in the area, but I've been renovatin.'"

Deanna half rolled her eyes "Eddie you're going to have to talk to me about what's going on eventually, but…" She glanced at the clock on the wall "…right now I need to go to work; do you want to meet up somewhere later?" She pulled up her bag and stood up, taking her coffee in one hand. Eddie stood up with a jolt and shoved the table accidently, he fixed it quickly and then tried to regain his composure, "Uh, yeah that sounds good. We could meet here again later. You're here every mornin right?" Deanna shifted her footing "Almost, sometimes I'm here around five in the evenings too. Do you have a cell phone number or a home phone? Uhm, or an email address?"

Eddie twitched "I just lost my cell a few days ago and I never had a landline. I don't think my email works anymore, got hacked. Sorry." He made up excuses quickly, he could steal a phone later but right now he had nothing on hand. Deanna shook her head "Ok then. Well I'll see you sometime."

The large man suddenly pulled Deanna into a hug, some of her coffee spilled to the floor and she made a small squeak at him. His grip was tight, like he didn't want to let go, he spoke quietly "I'm so sorry. For the… I just…" He held his breath and pulled away, his attitude instantly changing to a strangely lighter tone, "you need to get to work." Deanna just looked at Eddie as he walked her to the door quickly "Eddie, there's something wrong isn't there?"

"No no! Everything's fine. It's great actually." He chuckled as he and Deanna walked out the door "It's great." He repeated and Deanna swore she saw something black creeping into his eyes and mouth, but he turned away to walk in the opposite direction of her, quite quickly actually. Eddie waved back at her as he scurried away; Deanna made a small shallow wave at him and started walking down her normal path. His attitude change confused her and created an uncomfortable feeling in her gut that she couldn't ignore. She glanced back and found that Eddie was already gone, it was odd but Deanna just moved forward, figuring she'd see him again soon.

Eddie had turned multiple corners quickly; he could already feel his mind warping again. Venom's grip on him tightened, making Eddie grab his head as he tried to keep in control long enough to get out of Deanna's range and into a vacant area. He growled loudly, his whole body tensing. The feeling of his legs giving out was hitting him, and then it stopped suddenly. Eddie's tremors completely ceased and his growls turned into a dark distorted chuckle as Venom mended with his mind completely again. The feeling of power was like a drug as Venom sent waves of dopamine into Eddie's system. All Eddie had was an illusion of control once Venom decided it wanted to use him again, all it had to do was force Eddie to love being one with the symbiote. It wasn't very hard, and Eddie had little ability to fight it for long. He didn't even want to fight once the symbiote persuaded him.

His body strained and grew as the symbiote formed around his limbs, changing his chemical structure as it did. Black goo crawled out over his skin like webs, wrapping around him. His laughter deepened to a cruel cackle as the ooze formed around his face, creating jagged jutting teeth and a thick prehensile tongue. Muscles strained and pulsed with vitality as Venom overtook Eddie's body completely with a roar. Venom twitched and stretched its claws, now more than twice as large as Eddie normally was.

The daylight filtered onto what was once Eddie Brock, hunched over in the shade of an alley with drops of drool dripping off its fangs. Venom was aware of how compromising being in a lit area could be, and Eddie was warning that Deanna still might be close enough to hear them or come back for them. Venom made a low growl as it moved with ferocious speed towards a manhole. It pulled off the cover with ease and slipped inside, a few onlookers saw the large monster, but promptly walked away with baffled expressions and fear in their eyes.

Venom made his way away from area, slipping through the large sewer system with ease. He just needed to get away from Deanna for now and wait for the sky to darken.


	4. Friend

A few days passed without much incident, no sign of Eddie on anymore of his walks either. Deanna started to worry about him, fearing that he had gotten into some kind of horrific trouble involving some shady group to get money. His lying always had a habit of landing him in sticky situations. Even as a child he would get into fistfights with kids over the constant lies that he spouted off. Though Deanna was nowhere near as strong as she was now, she still could help get incessant bullies away from Eddie when he had diarrhea of the mouth. "Eddie you know they're smarter than that! Your lies will keep getting you in trouble, not everyone will believe you like the littler kids with that cat you said you saved. It's not the same." Eddie would nod and rub at his deep purple bruises, knowing there was no reason to argue with Deanna. Usually Deanna would sport bruises of her own from protecting Eddie when he had breaks of stupidity. Her Mother and Father would quickly become concerned by this, but they at least seemed to understand that her friend needed help. The help she gave seemed to work at the time, but Deanna knows that Eddie could have easily reverted back as soon as she left.

She tried not to think too deeply about the possibilities on the way home. This became much easier to do when she saw the now common set of peering white eyes staring at her from an alleyway. The creature known as Venom rustled some garbage cans when it was spotted. It didn't run, just seemed to merely try to hide its massive bulk. Even with the clouded afternoon light, it was still easy to spot Venom's shimmering void of a figure now that Deanna knew what to look for. Her steps stopped suddenly and annoyance mixed with frustration brimmed inside her. Clenching her bag as under her arm, she moved forward to the figure by a few feet "What? What do you want?" Her voice came out quick and sharp, this seemed to cause the venous creature to shudder.

Deanna's eyes flared and she tensed, wanting this _thing_ to just give her an answer. Venom made an inhuman groan and strained its voice "_Friend…" _His mind was a flurry of conflicted emotions, Eddie was trying so hard to be in control, influencing their joined mind to not hurt or scare Deanna. Venom himself didn't have much of an interest in Deanna, his need to be near her stemmed from his host. The symbiote was indeed insane, Eddie's emotions had broken what mind it had down into pure emotions and racing thoughts. Control was out of reach for both of them, but in these moments they tried so hard to seem unthreatening towards Deanna. Childhood memories and nostalgia had a grip on them both; in the back of their mind they desperately wanted to have some sort of connection to Deanna again.

Venom grabbed his head, the multitude of thoughts made it hard to keep still or calm. When they were after Spider-Man, their thoughts were clear and clean. Both Eddie and the symbiote hated Peter Parker with a passion so they worked perfectly together when hunting the lanky teen. Now though, their thoughts were mixed and hard to control except in bursts. Eddie was mostly suppressed now, and Venom's animalistic behavior had a better grip on what they did. All that Eddie truly did for now was influence emotions and thoughts.

Soon Venom repeated the word "_Friend._" and Deanna paused, tilting her head. She stared at the being as he quivered with uncertainty, "Why do you keep saying that? And what the hell are you?" Venom twitched as deep inside Eddie was reminded of how this form appeared to be a monster. Inside Eddie felt a welling feeling of self loathing. On all fours he took a few creeping steps back and Deanna nearly yelled "DON'T JUST RUN. Tell me what you are, I know you can speak. So try to use more than two words to give me some answers." Venom stopped in his tracks and Eddie yelled in his mind to not tell her about them.

All Deanna heard was an alien groan of discomfort before the creature spoke again "_We are… Venom… We won't harm you. We want to have a friend."_ Eddie was struggling inside Venom to not have them sound pervasive. He grabbed his head again and some saliva dripped off Venom's long fangs as he made a low dark groan "_W-We mean no harm. Friend. Only Friend." _ There was a tinge of genuine sweetness in his lurid voice that seemed almost familiar to Deanna. She looked at the tenebrous creature as it tried to lurch away again, wanting to ask 'why' again, but she knew he would not answer her clearly so there was no reason to try again.

She stared at the iridescent eyes of what wanted to be her friend, "Why were you in that alleyway with those men before? You were shot; I know you were, what were you doing there? How did you live?" Venom's body seemed to convulse and shift, cowering inward, almost curling into a ball. Its body shifted and it made a deep rumbling sound as what seemed like fluid tendrils started to slither over and beneath his murky skin. Deanna stepped back, her face distorting into an expression of disgust and apprehension. Suddenly Venom let out a pained screeching howl as his mind felt stretched thin. Too many questions, so many winding paths to vagueness, the insanity wasn't allowing their mind to think. Deanna nearly jumped back as Venom hurled himself into the air and onto a nearby building, making multiple bounding leaps away from her. He was surely blocks away within a few seconds and Deanna was left with nothing more than a racing heart in her chest and questions on the tip of her tongue.

It took a couple of minutes of watching a piece of newspaper flutter slowly down the alley for Deanna to fully realize that the inky mass of muscles just literally bounded away in massive leaps. A cough from someone passing by Deanna stumble as she looked back into the street. Cars drifted quickly past her, there weren't many near this area of which consisted mostly of homes and apartments. The cough was from an elderly woman passing by and Deanna followed jaunty lady with her eyes before letting out a long sigh and relaxing. Her back straightened up and she tried to clear her head as she started up her walk home once more.

Her pace was slow as she was lost in her thoughts of what was happening. Venom barely said anything and it only made her want to question the beast more. Her feet seemed to drag from her daze. Inside her head she felt like a ping pong ball being hit back and forth between feelings of distress and strange comfort. Comfort, she couldn't understand why through all the tormenting anxiety that Venom caused her; she still felt peaceful contentment about him being around in retrospect. The tension in her mind made her silently grind her teeth. It pained her that she couldn't understand herself or what was happening, her own emotions now seemed like an enigma to herself.

When she reached her apartment, she felt a wash of relief come over her. The day was over and she could rest, there was some reading and paperwork to do, but nothing that didn't allow her to relax. Her room was now fully stocked with items brought over from Georgia. Many items had an unfortunate peach theme to them that she couldn't help. Most of her clothes and plates had at least one brightly painted peach on them. The room it's self was still spacious, she didn't bring much from Georgia other than things to make her feel at home and things that her parents hid in her luggage with care. She even had local peach wine somewhere in her fridge.

Deanna set her bag down and pulled off her jacket, trying to get comfortable, then something caught her eye. After a short pause she started to walk towards her tightly closed window. On the ledge outside was a styrofoam cup with still steaming contents. It couldn't have been there when she left; there was no reason for her to leave a cup in such a place, and the cup was still emitting obvious heat. She opened the window with extreme curiosity and then slowly took the cup in her hand. It was indeed quite warm in her grasp; she looked it over and found that the name etched on it had been scratched out. Her wits told her it could be poisoned, possibly some new method being used by alleyway punks that want to watch someone writhe in pain from afar. Still, Deanna didn't want to dump it just yet, she made a motion with her hand to make the smell of the coffee waft up to her nose and then she was taken aback by surprise.

The smell was so familiar; she ordered it every time she went out to get coffee anymore. Mocha latte with the faint smell of caramel. She took in the sweet wondrous aroma of the drink, letting the heat warm her fingers as she looked around outside. Other than people walking on the sidewalk as usual, there was no one in site that stuck out or seemed to be watching her. Her eyes wandered to look above her; maybe it was a window cleaner's coffee that they had accidently set down at her window. There was no one, just her looking around aimlessly. It was so odd, the circumstances made her start assuming things. She sighed, speaking out loud as she took a cautious sip of the sweet drink "Friends."

Her coffee was just as good as always, maybe even better tasting than usual from the strange happenstance of her acquiring it. In her mind she knew it was still dangerous to drink it, to take a chance with the random substance, but she figured there would be no reason anyone would drug her in her own home. The rich, sharp and nearly bitter taste rolled over her tongue smoothly, followed by sweetness of caramel which made her smile. She watched the sky grow darker hues of red with the sunset, sipping on her comforting latte.

Questions flowed out of every nook in her mind, but she tried to keep calm and take things as they happened. Though still, if Venom did get her this drink, how did he know her favorite flavor? How close was he actually watching her, was he watching her somewhere now? With that thought, she glanced around outside, looking at the dark corners in her sites, waiting to see glowing white eyes. There was nothing, she even glanced around her own room, just in case. Still she was left alone to her thoughts that gave her absurd answers that she chuckled at.

There was a thought that crossed her mind, to look up this 'Venom' creature on the internet, to see what it was. She shook her head at this, doubting there was anything on the man. She did realize however that she would need to figure out what this thing was at some point and looking for any information would beneficial. At the same time though, she wanted to make that creature tell her what it was, why it was here and what actual purpose it had. She wanted to hear it from Venom, to make him speak so that she could fully understand. In reality though, she knew that she may not actually ever see Venom again, this all could just be a fluke and he may have left.

Uneasy and unsure were how her mind settled that night as she crawled into bed. Her mind stirred from the extra caffeine in her system, she probably shouldn't have had the drink, but she loved the flavor and gratification of it. Minutes upon minutes passed of her staring at the ceiling, counting the popcorn texture dots and trying to make shapes out of it while she willed herself to sleep. The shapes kept coming out monstrous in her mind, soon causing her to roll over and stare at her closet. That didn't exactly help; her mind had a field day with her closet, making her believe something was in it, something that was dark with a lashing tongue and long sharp teeth. This thought made her grip her pillow tightly, but for some reason she also didn't mind the thought.

At least if it were there, in her room, she would be able to talk to the Venom beast and maybe force it to make some sense to her. It was hard to tell what she wanted anymore, the situation was so strange and put her on edge. She would figure it out eventually; things always come together and work themselves out.

As Deanna fell asleep to sweet dreams, she could hear metal being hit outside and a guttural howl, but she was far too exhausted to stop her drift into unconsciousness.


	5. A Gift

Rotten meat was the first smell to hit Deanna's nostrils the next morning. She woke with a start, the smell finally being strong enough to wake her up. Following the smell led her door, the sound of flies skittering and hitting her window as they tried to get in was easily heard. A sharp fear hit Deanna in the chest, starting to worry about what she might find. A quick check of the fridge reassured her that nothing in her home was making the retched smell.

She opened the door slowly and the strong stench of drying blood and festering flesh hit her fully. Her eyes watered slightly from the sharp iron smell, it was familiar to her, being on a farm did involve her family butchering their own food. Though like anyone opening their door to a dead deer head, she was remarkably bewildered to see it bleeding on her doorstep. Her hand shot up to cover her mouth, wincing at the site.

The neck of the dear appeared torn and fresh, it wasn't highly decomposed but the flies hungered for it, lapping at the beast's bloodied eyes and sticky neck stump. It was a rather large deer head, the antlers had been jaggedly broken off. There were no bullet holes to be found, if it was killed by a hunter then they were a horrible shot. Though this didn't appear to be done by a hunter, a vertebra poked out jauntily from it and pieces of torn meat hung out of the powerful thick neck of the dead creature, giving the severed head the appearance that it had been forcefully ripped away from the body. Its eyes bulged with eternal fear, the outside of them having a dry sheen of the eyelids being open for hours. Flies generously gathered in its gaping sanguine mouth and around its eyes. Its fur was gathered in tuffs from the clotted blood that seemed to coat everything, adding to the suspicion that the head had been inhumanly ripped away from the body.

Staring seemed to be the only thing to do at the time, Deanna wasn't sure what to do with the still oozing head. It then became apparent that the smell had roused her from sleep much earlier than a usual morning; the other tenants seemed to have not noticed the dead animal's stench yet. She was grateful for this, she didn't want to have rumors and bad opinions spread about her so early into her new life. Then the thought occurred to her,_ how long has the head been here? _It couldn't have been more than an hour or so ago, seeing as no one had noticed it up until now.

A deep echoing sigh gurgled out of the still very groggy Deanna as she decided to haul the Deer head down the stairs herself. She paused to get gloves and an apron with a smiling peach on it. She wasn't going to weep for the loss of the gaudy apron; it would die for a good cause, the cause of not getting possibly diseased blood on her.

With a sharp exhale, Deanna picked the head up by the antler stumps, getting a good sturdy grip on the dripping head. It made a sickening squelching noise when it was lifted, more of the gore from its head and neck poured to floor with a plop. Flies swarmed in a frightened hurry as their home was lifted away. Deanna's face twitched and she steadied it on the front of her apron, hooking her arms up as she slowly made her way down the stairs. The deer was heavy, but Deanna could easily keep it supported as long as she didn't fully think about what she was carrying, even though it was almost as big as her torso. Bits of dirty meat and thick blood kept sliding onto the floor with soft gushing noises from every step.

Eventually she made it out the back door and threw the decrepit thing into the nearest open dumpster. The dumpster appeared to have new dents in it, which made Deanna recall the sound of howling in the night. She stretched her arms when they were finally free of the heavy carcass, she was now drenched in smeared dark blood, the crimson shade had turned a coppery brown from all the time left out in the air. She wiped her hands off on her ruined apron and rubbed at an itch on her nose with the back of her hand, trying her best not to get blood on her skin.

Her eyes wandered up to the sky, the moon was still visible, she guessed it must have been two or three in the morning. A few stars tried to desperately be seen and she let the full event wash over her while she stared at them. She let out a growling groan to the sky as it fully hit her that she had just moved a deer head off her front step at 2am. Her brow furrowed and she grunted out "Venom." Feeling there was no doubt he had done this. She wasn't sure how, but he must have done it. The howling in the night had to have been from him.

Without thinking she whipped around quickly, expecting to see him watching her. There was nothing, no glowing eyes in site. A heavy feeling was felt in her chest; she wasn't sure what she would have done if he was there to begin with other than yell. He ripped apart a deer; he could do the same to her easily. It didn't change the fact that she wanted to express her feeling about the situation and that the absence of his presence made her tense more.

She looked down and made her way back inside the building, quickly changing out of her clothes and throwing the blood soaked fabric into a garbage bin. Even with her cheery apron, there was still a good amount of gore on her nightwear.

A quick shower and a small breakfast later, Deanna still nearly fell asleep on the dining table. She briskly patted at her face, trying to sharpen her sense and wake herself up. "Fuckin… Venom. I wanted to sleep." Her eyes blink slowly, random shadows of dreams prevailed her mind throughout the morning. Everything went by with a blurry haze to it; this included her half assed cleanup job of the blood outside. Some windex and a wad of paper towels to hastily wipe up the blood was a good enough for her at this point. She tried not to dwell on what happened too much, she didn't need winged deer heads flying around in her dreams.

The time leading up to the walk towards the coffee shop seemed to melt and lose its form in her mind like a candle that's been burning for too long. She barely remembered putting on clothes, and she ended up checking her bag every few minutes, forgetting if she actually packed her things or not. The blearing feeling reminded her of being in primary school when she didn't know how to make healthy sleeping decisions.

Large hands gently touched Deanna's shoulders and she whipped around quickly and sharply, ready to punch and run from whoever touched her. Unfortunately she tripped instead, turning was too much for her tired body and it didn't comply with the speed. Eddie held onto her and helped her regain her balance. "Forgetting how your legs work again Deanna?"

She pushes herself up "Shush Eddie, I'm just tired." Eddie's gigantic arms were jerkily wrapped around her and then shakily pulled away when she seemed composed again. Though there was a hesitation between them both, Deanna felt a need to lean on him, almost wanting to just fall asleep in his arms. Her eyes felt so heavy. The thought made her face darken with a blush, though Eddie's mind wasn't far off from the subject, wanting just as much to hold her. They seemed to both just agree to not mentioning their sudden warm facial colors.

"So uh, Eddie, out on one of your walks again?"

He nodded and took a step back from her, letting Deanna stand on her own "Yeah and well, I wanted to see you again. I've been busy, sorry that I didn't meet up with you sooner." He pulls at the collar of his dark shirt, which appeared quite tight, "How have things been?"

She paused and shifted her weight to a lazier standing position, shaking her head "How about I tell you over a cup of coffee? It's, uhm, hard to word out. I need some time to think of what to say."

Concern starts to show on Eddie's face "Something bad then? Ah, that's not good at all. But yeah, I'd love to get a cup of coffee with ya."

Deanna face twitches into a smile "Thanks Eddie, it's nice to see you. I was getting worried that you got into some kind of trouble." She starts to walk again, Eddie following closely.

A nervous forced chuckle escaped him "Nope nope, everything's been good, just a lot of work boggin me down. Please just, uh… Don't worry about me." His eyes kept to the sidewalk, not wanting her to keep asking question.

"Right, sure." She grins "So what kind of work is keepin you down?"

Eddie paused, he didn't think this through well enough "I uh, it's hard to explain, just been havin to take more time to work on stories. Ya know, Reporter things. Listen I don't want to bore you, so let's just move on, alright?" His eyes flicked around and he hoped she would just let the subject go before Venom started stirring again.

"Fine Eddie, fine. You seem so anxious about something though. I won't bother you about it, I hate seeing you whine."

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the coffee shop, strange how time seemed to move faster when in good company. Eddie seemed more open to talking today, as if he was trying to get closer to Deanna and reminisce about being kids. His demeanor was comforting and made the memory of the early morning easier to bear. It was also easy for Deanna to go silent and get lost following the structure lines of the man's face. The features were distinctly chiseled; a powerful jaw with light unshaven scruff and visible cheekbones gave Deanna something nice to look at. It did occur to her that his features and stature could easily be thought of as intimidating, but she knew he still the person she remembered as a kid.

Intense azure eyes looked fixedly at Deanna with similar thoughts. Eddie was taking the time to examine Deanna's face. There were soft curves on her cheeks and chin, a rounded and very petite face with intense, deep almond eyes and a modest flared nose. Though today her eyes had dark circles under them from lack of sleep. She smiled with dainty full lips and Eddie felt a feeling a peace in him.

It occurred to both of them that they hadn't been talking for at least a few minutes. Eddie felt warmth in his chest and he forced a cough into his hand "S-so you said about something bad happening, what was it?"

Deanna shifted in her seat and broke her gaze to look over at the other patrons that had woken up so early in the morning "Well… I've been having this problem with some _creature_ lately and it kind of-"She sighed and Eddie started to tense up "- it left a deer head in front of my door. I don't know if it was some kind of warning or what. The smell woke me up, it was horrible."

Eddie started to visibly become uncomfortable "Oh s-so that's why you're tired. What did the creature look like? Did you see it?"

"I didn't see it this time, but I've seen it before. You wouldn't believe it if I described it to you, but it's very large and has a lot of teeth." Her hand came together as she fidgeted; lightly scratching at a hang nail "I'm not sure what it wants. It keeps following and now this. There was blood _everywhere_."

Eddie rubbed at his throat; guilt filled him as he remembered what he and Venom did. They tried so hard not to make Deanna afraid, but Venom's insanity made him think that the deer head was a good idea. He hesitated before he spoke "Well uh you know how cats bring dead mice and birds to their owner. It's their way of showing love and affection. Uhm, so if it's an animal or somethin, maybe that's what it was doing? Maybe it was just giving you a g-gift." He really hoped that the explanation was something Deanna would swallow. It actually was what Venom and Eddie had in mind within their crazed delirium. Figuring she'd appreciate them giving her a present of the large stag's head. He understood now that it was a horrible idea and now he figured he'd try to better Venom's image "So maybe the thing likes you or something. Has it hurt you?"

Deanna's eyes had come to steady on Eddie with contemplation. He twitched, knowing she only did that when she knew there was something wrong with his words. "Eddie, I don't think you understand what this thing is. It's a gigantic monster, that's the only way I can put it. I don't think it was-"

"Did it hurt you?"

"I… No. It didn't, not physically, but mentally it's been really putting some stress on me. I don't know what it wants. I really doubt it's just acting like some stray cat."

The word _'monster'_ rattled around in Eddie's head, he desperately just wanted to explain himself and have her understand that he wasn't trying to scare her. A feeling of tightness spasmed in his chest, he could feel Venom stirring in his mind, he needed more time. Eddie swallowed hard as he tried not to show how hurt he was "Maybe just try to give it a chance. It just sounds like it doesn't have bad intent if it's just some animal."

Deanna blinked at him a few times, trying to understand him. _Why is he defending this thing? He doesn't even know what it is. _She played with the sleeve of her shirt and then took a sip of her coffee slowly "I really don't know what to think of this thing. I'll see what I can do later. So why are you so interested in defending that creature?"

"I just think it might be not as black and white as you might think, that's all. It's just a suggestion." He sipped his coffee, trying to play off everything with a small grin, hiding the flurry of fear and emotions welling up in him.

"Right right. Yeah I'm sure it's not as completely terrifying as my mind likes to think." _He knows something. Why is he hiding it?_

"Anyway, I'm real sorry you had such a mess of a morning. Ya really don't need any more stress." There was a twinge in his muscles; the stress was driving Venom mad. He smiled more as an accidental reaction to his anxiety, rousing a suspicious glare from Deanna "Oh hey De', you have work right? You better get going. I'll leave you be." He pulled out his chair quickly and got up in a hurry, already making his way to the door.

Deanna followed him up "You don't have to leave Eddie, I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with these problems."

"No, it's fine, I like talking to you I-" There was a sharp visible spasm on his neck, a vein seemed to bulge and he held it with his hand "I have to go." He stumbled out of the shop briskly and Deanna stuttered out "It was nice seeing you!"

She sat back down quietly and tried to not glance back at the other customers who had made weary glares at her and Eddie. Slowly she finished her coffee, thinking about what he had said. There was a nagging suspicion in her mind, but she shook her head at the silly thought.

Eddie was struggling with keeping his form, Venom's voice and meddling wasn't helping. His joints kept popping with every step and to passersby he looked as though he was ready to kill someone, with his teeth clenched and face strained.

_Monster, she thinks we're a monster. _His hand clenched at his chest, he felt a great emotional pain in his heart. _We are a monster, she's right; we've killed… so many… _The thoughts hurt and he stopped to lean against a wall with his eyes clench shut. He held himself and felt pulses of energy run through him. _No, we'll show her we're not. We are good, we've helped people. She is wrong…Right…Wrong._

He started to smile and chuckle as teeth filled his mouth "_She's wrong about us. We're good, she's confused."_ Normal thoughts decayed into a mix of ecstasy filled lies that Eddie and Venom both agreed on. It was easier to agree on something that didn't hurt and only boosted their ego. Each step forward started to elicit a minute laugh from Eddie. Soon he slipped into the darkness of shadows to change rapidly "_We'll show her._"


	6. Progress

=Author's note: Sorry that it's taken so long to update, I've had work and life to deal lately and I haven't had much time to write. I am planning on finishing this story, though I don't know how long it will take. Don't be surprised if it takes me awhile to update again, but I do plan on updating. Also, today is my birthday, have a gift.=

The next morning had a far easier start than the last. No horrific bloody problems seemed to arise as Deanna's alarm started to beep loudly in her ear. Groggily as usual, she sat up and started to go about her morning routine. She went about getting some clothes together and forcing herself to look half way decent before heading to the kitchen.

As she started to butter the plain toast she quickly prepared, something caught her eye. Outside her window, on the little ledge, sat a white styrofoam coffee cup in all its lightly steaming glory. After staring in awe at the cup and feeling a strong sense of déjà vu, Deanna took a piece of toast with her, eating a few bites as she made her way towards the windowsill. She placed the slightly burnt bread in her mouth as she opened the window and retrieved the familiar cup.

After finishing her toast, she sniffed the contents of the cup and was unsurprised to catch the familiar twinge of a caramel scent. Her favorite drink was on her windowsill again. Slowly she tilted her hand and eyed over the sides of the cup. Then there was something that did truly surprise her, carved hastily in the styrofoam were the words 'WE'RE SORRY.' Deanna's eyes widened. The sheer aspect of Venom apologizing amazed her, even if it was just shakily carved words. This solved two questions in her mind, if this creature was trying to scare her and if it could understand her fully. Two words are very little to make assumptions on, but the coffee happened twice, and she knew it was Venom who had given it to her now. There was no doubt it was him, the circumstances were too lined up to be anything else.

Now there was a new question though, how did it know to apologize? Deanna thought back to the last morning, she was obviously infuriated, but she didn't see him anywhere around. He could have easily just been somewhere out of site, watching her. Though that was the most logical explanation, her mind made a route to a different idea, possibly brought on by her morning haze.

Eddie's speech about Venom yesterday was raising Deanna's suspicion. She sipped at her coffee, taking in the sweet flavors as she glared out the window. Pieces started to fit together that probably wouldn't have if she wasn't in such a dreamy mood, like how strange it was for her to come in contact with a strange creature and then meet an old friend. Or how her old friend seemingly defended this creature he supposedly knows nothing about. She wondered if it was possible that Eddie and Venom knew each other, a stranger idea was that they were the same person.

Her eyes narrowed as she raised the coffee cup once again, taking a long sip. Or she tried to, but the opening was slightly away from her mouth and caused some of the warm liquid to spill down her chin and neck. She let out a grunt at the feeling and then mumbled curses, walking away to find a paper towel and clean up the small mess.

The little accident was enough to take her mind of the mostly silly ideas crawling around in her head. Even if the inklings were incredibly close to the truth, she had no way of knowing this, so she set the odd notions off to the side.

She dabbed a damp cloth on her sweater to try to rid it of the sticky feeling that was settling from the coffee, then she started to head out with her things. The sun was slowly rising out over head; there was no need to stop by the coffee shop so she took her time enjoying the morning walk, sipping the remainder of her latte. The air around had a pleasantly warm aroma of freshly made bake goods that did a wonderful job of masking the smoky scent of exhaust fumes.

Ideas of possible futures flashed through her thoughts; maybe this internship could take her far from her limited living conditions and into a someplace wonderful. She imagined a large house with marbled staircase and secret doors leading to brightly lit rooms. People would clamor about her projects and she would work with wonderfully talented people on collaborations.

She let out a pleased breath that was cut short by the sound of a strange grunt. The noise made Deanna stop quickly and turn. At this point though, she had become fairly used to strange noises. Though it didn't stop her worries as she looked over and there in the shadows was a moving large creature. Though she didn't know if the feeling in her gut was more worry or interest anymore.

"Venom. What is it?" She spoke to him as if he was an annoying co-worker. He stood up tall and Deanna took a step towards him, this seemed to cause Venom some shock seeing as he took a quick step back and bent down in an attempt to appear smaller. Deanna chuckled quietly "What is it, what do you want?" Her voice softened to not sound as harsh with him. All of it seemed to catch him off guard, but he managed to point at the cup she still had in her hand "_We wanted to apologize_."

Deanna tilted her head "So you did give me this. Why the hell did you put a fuckin stag head on my doorstep?" Venom shuddered, Eddie was becoming more prevalent in his mind, trying to make things better _"…We thought you would like it_." His bulky form twitched sharply _"We were wrong."_

"Yes you were!" Deanna let out a groan and looked away, shaking her head "But it wasn't a threat at all?" She looked back and Venom shook his head, then Deanna stared at him, trying to read the beastly creature. There were so few features for her to examine, his pure white eye spots and ghastly toothy grin made him significantly harder to understand than Mr. Brock. His body posture and facial muscles, if they were truly muscles and not some strange oily ooze, seemed to indicate a submissive and all around apologetic mannerism. Her eyes flicked up and down his figure quickly before taking a few steps forward, her right hand inching up to lightly touch him over the brilliantly white spider symbol on his chest. Curiosity was getting the better of her and this creature, Venom, seemed to have made no hostile moves towards her.

As Deanna's fingers gently brushed across his large chest, followed by her palm pressing flat against it, Venom shivered and let out a low rumble. The flesh covering him felt slick and slightly warm to the touch. There was a minuscule movement under her fingers, just enough to draw attention to it. Venom's skin seemed to move around her hand, appearing to almost cling to her fingers. His back arched slightly as he pulled away from her hand for a moment, then silently he wrapped his large fingers around her wrist, holding her hand to him.

Deanna could feel her chest tighten; a light fluttering feeling could be felt in her stomach along with her heartbeat increasing dramatically. Venom's touch was delicate and she could pull away at any time, but she saw no reason to. Gradually and softly, he rubbed his thumb across her skin of Deanna's wrist, causing her to shiver and let out a small gasp at the tender touch. Deep inside of Venom's chest, she could feel a meager heartbeat through all the smooth flesh, a fast pulse of excitement. He let out another low rumble, causing his chest to vibrate with a non-threatening growl.

Venom tilted his head, pieces of the squirming flesh under Deanna's hand started to wrap around her fingers faintly. Her whole arm tensed and her eyes met Venom's before she pulled her hand away. The moment seemed to last for hours, though it truly spanned only a minute at most.

Hesitantly, Deanna stepped back. Venom's empty hand hung in the air for a moment, he looked almost lost. Deanna's voice cracked slightly "What are you?"

Silence fell between them as Venom's head twitched and he whined _"Can't...Explain." _Deanna could feel her heart still beating rapidly in her chest, he was being dismissive again and she hated it. Unfortunately she was having trouble speaking, the unexpected rush of emotions caught her off guard and she needed to take a breath.

"F-Fine. How about-" She took in a deep breath to finish her sentence "-You meet me after I'm done with work?" She then mumbled "You know where I live."

Venom stared; his musculature seemed to move in a flinch, flesh glistening as if it were crawling worms. Before anything else was said between them, a passerby gave a loud sharp scream at seeing Venom "M-MONSTER. IT'S THAT MONSTER."

Like a switch, Venom towered over Deanna, his features sharpened as his mouth opened wide to roar at the onlooker. His muscles tensed and pulsed, tendons were showing through thickly as his demeanor changed. Rows of teeth jutted out along with his wickedly long tongue. Deanna stumbled back away from Venom, gasping with fear in her eyes again. Eddie saw this and quickly Venom and he turned their sites back on Deanna, heaving as they breathed and whimpered. The roar was reactionary; they felt a strong urge to kill the watcher for intruding. Insanity picked at both their brains, and then panic started to spread. _Leave, leave before something goes wrong._

Another step back from Deanna made Venom gurgle out a low sounding cry before quickly turning and running back into the shadows, out of sight in an instant. Deanna stood in awe of what had happened. She looked over at the onlooker who was now running quickly away with a ghostly look on his face.

Minutes started to pass bye before she started walking to work again. Her pace was faster than before, a feeling of urgency was forcing her heart to constantly beat quickly. Inside her mind, she tried to not think about what possibilities existed now. She felt the air seem to thicken and sicken her as regret filled her for telling that creature to visit her home. For a moment of being near that thing, she felt something odd. She seemed to feel some kind of connection to that thing; it made her uncomfortable and warm.

The other interns seemed to notice that she appeared to be concerned with other things than work that day. She barely could pay attention, and she needed to desperately stay focused. This work was important, it's the whole reason she moved, but the possibility of a monster waiting for her at home wasn't settling well.

Apparently she was an open book about concerns. Her acquaintance, a man that liked to go by Billy, pointed them out "Aye, Deanna, you doin alright? Ya look kinda not with it today."

Deanna looked over at the lanky man with thin brown hair. He was only an inch or so taller than her and had green eyes that made her think of a swamp "Don't worry about it, Bill. Just some neighbors, that I'm not fond of, have been keeping me up lately."

"Well that sucks. Uh, want me to walk ya home?" Deanna gave Billy a half forced smile and shook her head "I'm fine really. I'd rather not-"

"Aw come on Anna, we could talk. Could be fun." Deanna winced, no one usually ever called her Anna and it didn't settle well. She understood that Billy had good intentions, he seemed to try to make friends with all of the interns, but she didn't want the company today. There was also a pinprick of worry that he would be in far more danger than her.

Deanna shook her head once more, her voice became firmer "Not today Billy. I don't need you to walk me home and I'd rather be alone. If you want to get coffee or something later, then you could call me up. You do have my number from before."

Billy nodded and sighed "Yeah sure. That's fine; I hope your neighbors start actin less shitty with ya." He looked at his watch "Well, I'mma head home now. See ya Monday." With that he started to walk away, and Deanna realized that it was indeed Friday, which made her think of how Venom could possibly be circling her apartment all weekend.

_Call the cops. _It was a thought, but then she realized that there was nothing she could say that would warrant a report. Telling them that a monster has been visiting her would only make them suspicious of her. She could say that _someone _has been harassing her, but then she couldn't give them a real description of what he looked like and there was nothing that could be done. In the back of her mind, she didn't feel she needed to actually worry.

Her walk home was cautious, though she wasn't struck with fear, she was realistic. She invited a monster to her house, and no matter how comfortable he made her for a few fleeting moments, there was no way she could predict his actions. She glared at the ground, angry with herself for being so quick to tell Venom to just waltz inside her home.

Deanna's eyes soon settled on her apartment complex in all its shoddily painted beauty. She heaved out a loud sigh as she made her way to the front door of the building. Her eyes glanced at the light next to the door as it lit up with the coming of dusk. Then her eyes settle on a tiny Orb Weaver spider. She didn't remember seeing it there a few nights ago; she possibly just hadn't noticed it though. There was no apparent reason for her to suddenly calm, but the tiny being made her smile ever so slightly. She decided to take it as a good omen for the night as she walked up the stairs.

After opening the door and taking a significant time to deduce a backup plan if Venom was standing in front of her, she found that her home had no signs of the creature. Everything was ok, nothing was out of place. There was no coffee on the windowsill or blood on the floor, her home felt empty and safe. She ventured around her home and checked every room, still there was nothing.

She nearly threw her bag and jacket to the floor as she settled down on the couch. Her back cracked as she settled in and relaxed, taking a moment to stretch and then close her eyes. Thoughts flittered through her head and now she almost felt disappointed. Deanna tried to push that feeling away, she was happy for the calm, but she had also committed herself to something happening. Now there was nothing but her thoughts and the hum of the heater.

As soon as she started to drift to sleep, she heard something. A movement from somewhere near her window. Deanna's eyes shot open and she sat up quickly, every muscle tensed. She didn't know how Venom's large form had suddenly appeared in her home, but there he was, grotesque as ever. Strands of his slick skin seemed to cling to her window and slowly move back towards his bulky form like writhing tentacles, as if he had somehow gotten through the window without opening it and pieces of his flesh were rejoining him. He stood tall, looking down as his shape became solid once more.

Deanna's mouth hung slightly open as she pushed herself further up on the couch, her hands clawed at the cushions. She stared at him while hearing her own heartbeat in her throat "…Venom." With that, her hand touched at her jean pocket, feeling the knife within it.

Venom's eyes darted up to her with their glowing menace, then he took a step back and hunched. He was completely aware of the hostile emotions Deanna was displaying; he could see her shake ever so slightly as her whole body tensed. Her lips were pursed and her jaw seemed sharply clenched. His head went down as he spoke _"We were invited. We wanted to be friendly."_

Now Deanna wasn't sure if she truly regretted feeling disappointed before, though she expected to find out. She slowly moved off the couch, her hand still felt at the knife in her pocket, "Yeah, guess I didn't really think that invite through." This appeared to hurt Venom in some way, he moved to a crouch and his skin prickled as if he shivered.

She winced; he seemed to be trying so hard to not frighten her now, or to appear small. He hadn't technically broken in and he wasn't threatening her. She started to wonder if all her worries were uncalled for as she walked towards the quivering muscular mass.

"Uh, sorry. Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, if I did… It's just you're… you know right?" Shaking and hesitant, Deanna set her hand on Venom's shoulder. Immediately Venom looked at her and then her hand. His flesh curled around her fingers, holding her hand gently to him. Deanna didn't pull away, though she did stare at the slow movement of sinew. It was almost mesmerizing in the light; it didn't seem as sickening or strange as it should. Venom's hand slowly moved up to hold Deanna's hand to him. Eddie just wanted her close, his mind felt clearer with her here, the symbiote's insanity seemed to calm for the moment. Or maybe it was all the strain it took for them to maintain their composure that was giving them the illusion of sanity.

Deanna's free hand moved away from her knife and towards Venom, his eyes seemed to shift and follow her movements as she very delicately touched at the creature's cheek. A deep rumble vibrated through him, he seemed to enjoy the light touch of her fingers. Her hands quickly pulled away and Venom seemed to try to hold onto her for a short moment, "So now are you goin to actually listen to my questions and talk without running away?" There was a pause and then the being nodded.

Venom started to stand, though he stayed slightly hunched, he still seemed to tower over Deanna and nearly touched the ceiling. His claws fidgeted and created a clicking noise as they moved back and forth, _"We want you to not be afraid of us anymore." _Deanna studied Venom; his features were softer though still heavily outlined with thickly defined features. His face was incredibly masculine along with the rest of him; his jaw was thick and strong looking. The sharp teeth that were crammed into his mouth seemed to be slightly less intimidating than usual. She nodded slowly and tried not to constantly glance over the figure in front of her for too long, she was finding his musculature to be very 'distracting,' "Right. Ok then. First, why do you keep referring to yourself as multiple people? Is there another person I don't know about?"

He grunted and his body twitched heavily _"Reason… We have reason, but it's hard to explain. It's in our nature." _Deanna seemed unimpressed by the answer, "How many of my questions will be answered that way." Venom made a guttural sound resembling an uncomfortable whine _"Sorry."_

Every time he made that noise, Deanna gave a small wince. She waved it off "Don't worry about it." She glanced around and then meekly pulled at one of his fingers as she moved towards the couch "How about you sit down?" Venom, unnervingly quickly, moved to the couch, sitting at the corner of it. Deanna tried very hard to not mind him as she moved to the kitchen and brought out one of the many jars of peaches she had laying around. She uncapped the jar and handed it to him "Here, they're peaches. My family loves sending me peach shit all the time now. I like 'em, but I have way too many." Venom sniffed at them and repeated the word 'peaches.' Eddie wasn't extremely fond of the fruit, but he didn't mind them, Venom on the other hand, apparently abhorred them. As soon as the sweet fruit entered the undulating beast's maw, it hacked and roared at the flavor. A deep growl echoed in his throat as he swallowed the peach. Deanna took multiple steps back, starring. Her face twitched at the extreme reaction towards the innocent fruit. They had a look of deep distaste and disgust towards the fruit. Eddie forced Venom and him to not immediately throw the jar at a wall; they turned to Deanna and softened _"We don't like this."_

"I see that. I really do." She moved towards him and slowly took away the jar "No more peaches for you then. Ever." Her face was slightly pale as she set the peach jar back in her kitchen. Gradually she made her way back out and sat down on the other end of the couch.

A few strenuously awkward minutes passed of silence between them both before Deanna spoke again, pointing at Venom's arm "So, what are you made of? How did you get into my home without opening the window?" She pokes his arm and his flesh tenderly grabbed her finger before letting go "Why does it do that."

In a fast fluid movement, Venom moved across the couch to lean over her. Deanna scrambled back and frightfully grabbed at her knife, which she forgot to open up. She stared him down, her body trembled from the sudden closeness and worry struck her. His flesh seemed to move more than before, pulling away from him in large clumps to carefully hug and caress her. His large hand went to her face to softly run down it _"We are not a single being. Our flesh became one, this is what we are. We are not from this place; we can do things out of the realm of human flesh. We will not hurt you, please don't be scared." _

Deanna truly didn't know what to do or feel at the moment. She didn't feel afraid after he spoke, and she didn't feel a need to move away either. She simply stared at him with wide eyes and then she shuddered hard from the sensory overdrive of it all. Her brain was trying to digest what he was able to do, that he was some kind of alien creature she could quite comprehend. It didn't help that she didn't feel like she wanted to get away from him, which caused a yelling match in her head that eventually quieted down when Venom licked her face slowly. His tongue almost curled around her neck.

They both stopped in confusion; Eddie was creating a furious riot inside his head of loud yelling so that Venom could understand how unhappy he was. Deanna stared and made a small 'eck' sound that was about the only thing she could muster as both a word and show of emotion. She was not at all disgusted, but that didn't help her understanding.

Venom's tongue hung in a limp state and then he retracted it as his teeth clench and he heavily shuddered. His body solidified once more away from Deanna and kept quivering as he held himself with his elbows on the couch keeping him propped over the now wide eyed woman. He soon grabbed his head and made a loud groaning sound as there was conflict within their mind.

"Uh I…" Deanna stopped and Venom looked at her, his voice distorted and sounded horrifyingly familiar _"Sorry SORRY I… We're sorry. Don't be mad. I tried- It's hard to stop things."_

Now Deanna was shaking again, the voice was sounding too familiar and her mind was nearly frantic. She coughed and then a though screamed through her head that didn't make sense, but settled to the forefront.

Her hand suddenly shot up and wrapped around her own throat, it was an old habit she had whenever she felt lost in a situation. She felt her pulse race under her fingers, her grip wasn't tight, it simply held. It made her feel slightly better, though her eyes still flittered and her vision started to darken.

Venom's eyes seemed to create a shape of concern as he moved one hand to Deanna's cheek _"Deanna…"_ His body still twitched and convulsed with movement, though now his attention was set to her. She made a few noises and then tensed up sharply and gasped before passing out.

The distortion to Venom's voice caused him to be nigh impossible to understand as he yelled Deanna's name loud enough to wake the neighbors. For a moment he was truly horrified when her hand went lax along with the rest of her. He relaxed slightly when his hand felt her gentle breath.

A quiet sigh came from deep in his chest as he moved off the couch and took her in his arms. She didn't feel heavy to him and his large arms easily kept her propped up and close. Some of the front portion of his body liquefied and wrapped around her to keep her weight up and her body comfortable. One arm held her back up and the other kept her legs up. Slowly and steadily he moved towards her room and soon set her down on the bed. A few tendrils came from his arms and back to move away the top sheet as he lay her down. Deanna barely stirred, simply relaxing and slightly shifting in place.

She soon started to twitch and fidget heavily in her sleep. Tiny distressed noises came from her as dreams and problems mixed into a stew of wild thoughts. She mumbled out something that was barely understandable "…Ed-Eddie…" Venom hesitated and then laid down next to her. The symbiote reluctantly relinquished control for a short while as the 'mask' over Eddie's face pulled back. He felt worried at first, he almost wanted to just leave her and hope that things would be alright and her acknowledgement of him didn't mean she knew what he was. As Deanna shifted more, he stopped caring about her possibly putting the pieces together, at least for this moment. Ever so tenderly he held her close and softly spoke "I'm here Deanna, it's ok. Your buddy Eddie is here. Think of nice things..." He rested his scruffy chin on top of her head and smiled. The only thing that was revealed to be Eddie was his face; the rest of him still was large and covered in the symbiote's ooze.

Tendrils stirred from Eddie and held onto Deanna, wrapping around her as well as keeping her comfortable. He kept embracing her, his one arm acted as a pillow for her head while the other hand pleasantly stroked down her back. She made a few soft noises from the closeness as her whole body relaxed. Her position shifted slightly towards Eddie as her head bowed down to his chest.

There was an ever slight rhythmic beat from Eddie's heart that seemed to sooth Deanna's dreams. She drifted off into a deep REM sleep as Eddie held her close for the night. His size nearly eclipsed her from view if someone were to walk in on them.

Eddie's mind was calm, both he and Venom were placid for the moment. Having his friend so close caused him to have a fluttering feeling of warmth in his chest that he wasn't used to. He took in a deep breath and his eyes closed as he nuzzled the top of Deanna's head, fluffing up her hair. Without meaning to, he fell asleep for the first time in a long while, made better by his only friend cuddled up in her arms.


End file.
